Facility provides primary health care
The medical facility in Rosebank conducts free health screenings the second Saturday of every month.
In efforts to provide primary health care to communities, Epione Heath Village Rosebank launched a free screening initiative.
The most recent Second Saturday Basic Health Screening session took place on June 11.
Clinical director of Epione Health Services Dr Samantha Fee said they moved into the Rosebank facility, which is their first primary care facility, in September last year.
“We are using it to understand what our entire community needs from a primary care perspective. We are looking at different ways in which we can sustainably provide equal, accessible and affordable healthcare to every single member of our community irrespective of their background,” Fee said.
“Our belief is that if primary care is available to everybody, and if it’s effective and efficient, many healthcare problems in this country will be solved at one visit.”
She said while they work out how to implement the above in the best possible way and remain a sustainable business, they decided to provide one Saturday as free care to the community members who can’t afford to pay for healthcare services.
“We obviously don’t have unlimited resources and facilities so we can’t offer everything. Thus, we are offering basic health screening; women’s health advice and screening; the same for the gentlemen. We have partnered with Lancet Health Laboratories who are allowing us to do some relevant and age-appropriate blood tests, pap smears, prostate testing and any other stuff we can do, we will.”
Fee said going forward, they hope to provide a much more comprehensive community based primary care clinic. On average in the last clinics, they have seen 30 patients.
“What’s really encouraging now is that we started to see patients coming in from not just the suburbs but Alex, Randburg and most recently we have engaged with a shelter in Rosebank. At the moment if we come across an issue which requires medical attention, we make the diagnosis, explain to the patient and then refer them to a local clinic for the relevant medication.
“Our vision is to be able to coordinate our care with the state primary care and hopefully have a much better collaborative service offering. The next session will be on July 9 and then the next thereafter will be on August 13.”
Details: Epione Health Village Rosebank www.epionehv.com
Related articles:
